Forgiveness given and forgiveness received are always the pure work of uncreated grace. Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy. Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Before that, we are dry, dead cisterns. Before that, we... See more

I believe that violence is not a solution to any problem. I believe that every person is endowed with a sacred dignity. I believe that every person is capable of changing, healing, and being restored. I pledge to respect the dignity of every person. I pledge to overcome violence with love and compassion. I pledge to accompany and support anyone

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In this respect, forgiveness is the exact opposite of vengeance, which acts in the form of re-acting against an original trespassing, whereby far from putting an end to the consequences of the first misdeed, everybody remains bound to the process, permitting the chain reaction contained in every action to take its unhindered course. In contrast to... See more

Praying to Forgive

Brian McLaren identifies how prayers of petition help us to experience forgiveness:

Since being wounded or sinned against is a terribly common experience, I suspect we need to pay more attention to it. In fact, being wronged is directly linked in the Lord’s Prayer to the reality of doing wrong; we pray, “forgive us our sins as we... See more

Nonviolence takes another approach. Practitioners of nonviolence seek to become their truest selves by slowly learning to love all beings, confident that all are kin and that we are called to embody this kinship concretely, especially in the midst of our most difficult and challenging conflicts.... Nonviolence is committed to challenging and... See more